Poetry Quotes by Nikki Giovanni

Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream - they go together.

— Nikki Giovanni

I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )

— Nikki Giovanni

In law school they teach you that everything is a contract; well, in poetry everything is a narrative.

— Nikki Giovanni

Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.

— Nikki Giovanni

ever been kidnapped by a poet if i were a poet i'd kidnap you put you in my phrases and meter…

— Nikki Giovanni

If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.

— Nikki Giovanni

Black Poetry is not for Black People...it is for everybody

— Nikki Giovanni

The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.

— Nikki Giovanni

“Writers don't write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don't. ...If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe…

— Nikki Giovanni

Poetry is like air. It's one of the necessary things. Everyone benefits from poetry. And as you know, poetry is international. There…

— Nikki Giovanni

The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said, 'A civilization is judged only in its decline.' That made sense to me. I would…

— Nikki Giovanni

The only advice [for new writers and poets] I can offer is to be yourself: not the self someone else wants you…

— Nikki Giovanni

Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.

— Nikki Giovanni

[To become a poet] The most important thing is to pay attention. The next would probably be to read; it's so important…

— Nikki Giovanni

I do not understand why any poet or writer would run for office; that's a different sense of who you are. I'm…

— Nikki Giovanni

I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write…

— Nikki Giovanni

Poetry is the most informative of all of the arts because everything comes down to poetry. No matter what it is we…

— Nikki Giovanni

Poetry is music though, unfortunately, not all music is poetry. Because music has other carriers to take its message - beats, lyrics,…

— Nikki Giovanni

“ Ego Tripping I was born in the congo I walked to the fertile crescent and built the sphinx I designed a…

— Nikki Giovanni

Poems don't have to rhyme... Poems are about beauty and emotion; in other words poems are about feelings.

— Nikki Giovanni

Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.

— Nikki Giovanni

[To write poems] I think it's important to do research, and research mostly is going to come from books, so all of…

— Nikki Giovanni